180 IDENTITY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PERIPATUS, 



circumstances; the situation of the genital aperture, the number 

 of the spinous pads (soles), and the arrangement of the 

 primary papilla" on the claw-bearing joints of the legs, all being 

 duly noted. Moreover, he gives six figures of various parts of the 

 specimen. His examination of it was therefore of a more or less 

 minute character, and it is hardly possible that he should have 

 incorrectly counted the number of the walking legs. 

 (3) The only reference to the description of P, brevis, de Blainville, 

 [not Blanchard] given by Sclater and Sedgwick — besides de 

 Blainville, " Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles," Supplement, 

 T. i., p. 237, Paris, 1840, which I am unable to consult — is the 

 footnote to Gervais' paper " Etudes pour servir a I'histoire 

 naturelle des Myriapodes " in the Ann. Sc. Nat. (2), vii., p. 38, 



1837. This, however, is but the abbreviated description, quoted 

 by Sedgwick (Monograph, p. 168), which mentions " pourvu de 

 quatorze j^aires de pattes," but does not disclose what view de 

 Blainville took of the oral papilla-, nor exactl}^ what the fourteen 

 pairs were to be understood as comprehending. In Gervais' paper 

 " Sur le Genre Perij)ate"'^ is incorporated a detailed description 



* Ann. Francaises et Etrangeres d' Anat. et de Physiol. T. ii, p. 309, 



1838. Abstract in Revue Zoologique, par la Soc. Cuvierienne, Ann(^e, 

 1838, pp. 264-265. 



In the same paper (pp. 314 and 310) Gervais says " celui qu' a vu M. 

 Macleay strait de Cuba," having previously stated " et M. Macleay, qui en 

 parle d' une maniere transitoire dans un note publie depuis plusieurs ann^es, 

 dit aussi qu' ils ont des rapports avec les vers et en nieme temps avec les 

 Myriapodes (Zoological Journal)." Sedgwick {I.e. p. 197) remarks, "Blan- 

 chard refers to a Peripatus found in Cuba by Mr. Macleay. He regards 

 it as belonging to the species juliformU. I have been unable to find any 

 account of this Cuban species." 



The only reference to Peripatus by W. S. Macleay I can find in the 

 Zoological Journal is contained in a postscript to a letter written from 

 Havanna to Mr. Vigors (Vol. iv. p. 278). It takes exception to Guikling's 

 view of Peripatus as a mollusc, suggests other affinities, and adds "There is 

 a specimen in my father's collection " [at that time in Australia]. But it 

 seems to me to offer no ground for associating the record of a Cuban species 

 with W. S. Macleay's name. 



